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The weather was perfect and we had a team of eight volunteers: Dave, Bill, Jason and his 2 sons Laszlo and Andreas, Anne and Ian - and of course myself Harold.
This is what we did:
Thank-you everyone that donated to help pay for paint and new boards!
Here are some pictures:
We can't send out a News Letter without telling you where we are in this Fund Raiser!
As you remember, the goal of the Lochaber Bay Cemetery Fund Raiser is to raise our asset total to over $75,000 by the year 2035 so we can continue cutting the grass and maintain the cemetery into the middle of the century. See Reality Check ⇗.
Here is the pretty graph as of end of 2025:
Projections are with inflation at 2% and interest rates are 'inflation plus 1.5%'.
... and here is where we are today (Sept 2026):
The Numbers show:
Donations by cheque can be made to:
Lochaber Bay Cemetery Company
c/o William Lamb, Treasurer
246 Wall Rd
Navan, Ontario
K4B 1H9
Donations by e-transfer can be made to:
donate@lochabercemetery.org
Enter your email address or mailing address in the message window so we can send you a receipt!
Full Disclosure:The Lochaber Bay Cemetery Company is not a Registered Charity but rather a 'non-profit' entity.That means we don't have financial or legal expenses and our board of directors are strictly volunteer. All donations go towards cemetery maintenance and capital projects.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Frances Minerva Purvis on July 4th 2026.
A copy of her obituary can be found here.
Frances will be interred in the Locahber Bay Cemetery this fall.
Frances served on the Lochaber Bay Cemetery Board of Directors as Secretary-Treasurer from 2005 to 2011. Judging from the obituary, Frances enjoyed life and was devoted to her family and church - all with a twinkle in her eye. I'm sure she will be missed greatly.
It's hard not to be intrigued with the Cameron mysteries of Lochaber Bay.
The first thing you will notice is the burial plot listed as 'Piper Cameron' in DW MacLachlan's survey 'drawing' of 1913 ⇗. No first name .. because everyone knew it was John Archibald 'Piper' Cameron born in Argyle, Scotland in 1821 and immigrated to Canada in 1849 with his wife Elizabeth MacDonald.
We can be pretty sure we have the right Cameron because right beside his burial is another burial listed as "Cameron Mrs McDonald". (DW seemed to have shortened everyone to Mc in his drawing!).
The first and only Cameron headstone (of this era) is G14 ⇗ for "Alex Cameron" and to his left (if head is west) is "Sarah Cameron " (plot G13 ⇗)
How did Alex die at a young age of 21 in 1872? Was it a farming accident, disease or drowning - a fate so common at the time.(See the James Campbell ⇗ who died tragically working on the river.)
Sadly, Alex's father John out lived him by 19 years and is buried without a headstone (plot H16 ⇗). beside his wife Elizabeth (plot H15 ⇗).
Who is 'Sarah Cameron'? Is she 'Sarah Lamb' who married Alexander's brother James (plot G16 ⇗) ? Or is this Alexander's younger sister - also a 'Sarah' fittingly buried beside her brother?
Lastly, there is the matter of Dugald Cameron of the Old Boys of 1912 Reunion ⇗. He and his sister Flora arrived in Canada presumably with his father 'Piper' Cameron in 1849. "Grandfather Cameron was a piper and at the time of King Edward VII's visit to Canada, while he was yet Prince of Wales, he played the pipes at the Prince's arrival at Montreal" - this according to Angus MacLachlan in his book My Well Loved Country Home ⇗.
Dugald died in 1917 - 5 years after the 1912 reunion and 4 years after DW did his survey of the burials at the Lochaber Cemetery.
So where is Dugald buried?
Is he in St Andrews Cemetery, Buckingham as the above headstone suggests? But the birth date is off by one year and the spelling of his name is a bit off. However the 1901 Census agrees with Dugald spelling and the month and day of his birthday too. So it is likely this is our 'Dugald'! (or 'Dougald' as it sometimes appears in other documents)!
His wife Harriett Riviers died in 1921 in Rivermead, Quebec. Is that Harriet just behind Dugald over his left shoulder in the 1912 group photo? In Harriott's obituary they say 'interment in Buckingham, Quebec' but nothing turns up in the grave yard websites .. so far! Maybe no one ever updated the headstone .. or we have not looked at the back side of the Cameron headstones for an inscription!
To complicate the picture, there are other Camerons in the Lochaber region in the mid 1800's notably Flora (who married a James Campbell) and her two brothers John Archibald and George William.
Flora and James lived on Lot 25 Con 2 in Lochaber according to Angus's book. The two brothers of Flora were in the lumber business with the Edwards in Thurso. Flora is buried in Thurso cemetery and none of these persons seem to be connected to burials at the Lochaber Cemetery .. but they sure muddy the waters by sprinkling 'John', 'Alexander','Archibald' and 'Flora' through the naming of their children!
An interesting footnote on Flora. Her parents, John and Susannah, appear to be cousins with the same last names. Sadly John drowned in 1827 in Lochaber well before 'Piper' Cameron arrived in the region in 1849. There is a plaque marking John's death in the Thurso Cemetery. Their Lochaber farm was Lot 27 Con 1 ⇗ - which would appear to be underwater now!
As always, Angus MacLachlan's Well Loved Country Home has been a great source.
Also, we have to give thanks to Marney MacDonald, Dennis Cameron and Steven Lazaroff (GeneoHub) for their emails inspiring me to dig into the Camerons of Lochaber Bay.
As always, comments and corrections welcome!
Harold
To come up with a subject for our Newsletters, we often scroll through our archive of early letters as well as take the pulse of emails that come in through our website.
This fall we have had a number of interesting contacts on the Camerons so it was hard not to dig into this family history as it relates to the cemetery.
From our LBC Committee, Dave suggested we dig into some interesting stories around the early settlers and the Fenian Raids. There is an interesting account of a MacCallum and his border skirmish here ⇗. We'll have to dig further in another Newsletter!
Marianne suggested more background on the 1936 Lochaber Bay Cemetery Company - Letters Patent ⇗ initiated by three farmers from Mason. All very interesting when you realize it was issued November 17th 1936 during the reign of King Edward VIII who 24 days later abdicated the throne! You can put this in context with 90 years earlier when Piper Cameron played his pipes for King Edward VII ! We have some interesting letters between these 3 farmers and a lawyer in Thurso which we'll have to save for another time!
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